Best-in-class couch gaming comes to PS4 and Steam with impressive new content.

Game Details

No matter what day it came out, TowerFall: Ascension would deserve to be a giant gaming success. This 8-bit-style archery-battling game, an upgraded version of the formerly Ouya exclusive original Towerfall, looks mighty unassuming. Behind the pixels hides a masterwork of indie-game design, not to mention the best excuse to gather four friends on a couch in years.

But today of all days! March 11 is a particularly curious day to loose the new, PC/PS4 version of TowerFall on the world, as it arrives alongside the launch of another massively hyped, multiplayer-focused game (one that happens to start with T and end with "fall," to boot). The release-date choice sets up a veritable showdown between a robot-shaped Goliath and a puny, bow-equipped David.

Let's not sound like crotchety fogeys, decrying the progress of always-online, explosive 3D action or blindly celebrating the days of old-school, couch-friendly play. TowerFall: Ascension doesn't succeed by mere regression. In fact, much like Titanfall, Towerfall: Ascension iterates on a compact gameplay core to perfection, fleshing it out from there with content, options, and giddy flair. Triple-A shooter on one hand; triple-A indie on the other.

Last year's Ouya-only launch of TowerFall was good enough to secure a spot in our 2013 best-of list, and this expanded edition doesn't stray far from the original's appeal. Up to four archers run and jump around a 2D arena in an attempt to be the last archer standing. By default, players start with three arrows in their quiver, and once you've shot them all, you need to scour the battlefield for used arrows to keep fighting. You can also try an alternate strategy, like jumping on enemies' heads, using environmental hazards, or grabbing power-ups from treasure chests.

Super Smash Bros. is the obvious comparison point, thanks to constrained arenas, four-player 2D battling, and tide-turning power-ups (more on those in a second), but Towerfall stakes its fun factor on a distilled, super-simplified take on the party-fight genre. For one, all arrow shots come with a slight "homing" tweak, automatically aiming for the nearest target within reason. This is because players can only aim in eight directions as opposed to full-analog aiming, and this combination is among the game's most clever design decisions. Why force utter precision in a tiny arena when timing and twitchiness matter more?

To that point, the game only has three buttons, and no move requires additional joystick taps, charges, or other high-level systems to learn. The only "complex" maneuver is a dodge, and it's a pretty slick response to that auto-homing system; tap a trigger button, and your archer will air-dash in any direction. You can use this to get out of an arrow's way, but smarter players will dash into an arrow's path, catching it in mid-air and gaining crucial ammo while saving your life.

All of this comes together with the kind of "8-bit physics" that made the oldest SuperMario games feel so comfortable. Characters run and hop with a smooth, almost squishy feel, and they can easily wall-jump and edge-cling to traverse the game's teensy arenas with haste.

What's new in Ascension? For one, a slightly larger selection of power-ups, along with more arenas in which to wield them. All of the clever powers from the original return, including "bramble" arrows that make dangerous vines appear wherever an arrow lands. But the best new additions to the basic battling revolve around screwing with players' perception. Namely, they ignore walls.

New "drill" arrows can tear through a single wall, then emerge from the other side to polish off a foe. This often plays out doubly tricky in TowerFall, as the arenas' edges operate Pac-Man style: if you reach the left edge of the screen, you reappear on the right side, etc. In a similar vein, new purple surfaces are solid to walk over but allow arrows to pass through.

Ascension's "quest" mode is a far more notable addition, and not just because it pits players (alone or in a pair) against waves of AI-controlled baddies. Rather, this is a meaty alternative to playing plain ol' deathmatch. Ascension creator Matt Thorson has cooked up an amazing variety of smart baddies, as opposed to boring bags of flesh. Reapers swarm the screen in intimidating droves and auto-dash with scythes in hand; gargoyles flit through the air while wielding gusts of wind; bosses send out explosive, room-filling lasers. And all of these buggers appear in nastily coordinated assaults, particularly when players enter the "hardcore" set of quest levels.

For a game tuned so well for friend-on-friend battling, quest mode was probably unnecessary, but it's not merely a nice bonus. Thorson, perhaps accidentally, has built an arcade-battling game that soundly surpasses the classic likes of Joust. It's that good. A "trials" mode pales in comparison, merely asking players to destroy a few immobile sandbags within a time limit, but it's a welcome mode all the same, especially for players looking to hone their level-hopping skills.

Best of all, the game organically unveils its gobs of new content as you play. After a number of deathmatches, players will randomly meet a new foe or face a new scenario; overcome the surprise, and you'll unlock new characters, arenas, and more. As more options and tweaks appear, players will appreciate the "variants" menu that appears before every match, which allows for insane levels of customization. For example, if you'd like to lose friends quickly, toggle the "cursed dodge" option, which kills players who fail to grab an arrow whenever they hit the dodge button.

With all that gushing out of the way, let's get to the main piece of bad news: no online multiplayer. None now, and presumably, none in the future. It's a heartbreaker of a design decision, but anybody who's tried to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl online knows what four players' worth of lag can do to a frantic battle, and Ascension's simplified control system shines specifically because of super-twitchy play. (Recent, similar indie gem Nidhogg chose to launch with online play enabled, almost to its detriment.)

At the very least, TowerFall is now available outside of the Ouya ecosystem. That simple fact, more than the mountain of improvements and additions, will probably drive a huge crowd to Ascension's couch-perfect play. The new editions also offer new options to share your play: Cozy up with the PC edition, and you can save the final moments of your best battles to a GIF, much like the one above; go with PlayStation 4, and you can tap one button to stream your best multiplayer moments to the Internet at large.

Either way, this is a game to be shared: with friends on a couch in the moment; with friends on the Internet to tout the "you won't believe this" GIFs and streams; with buddies at the water cooler, whom you'll regale with four-player tales that'll have them begging to come over for your next TowerFall: Ascension party.

The organic insanity of four friends on the same couch (lacking in today's launch of Titanfall, by comparison) can wring some level of fun out of even relatively bad games. Ascension's immaculately crafted battle ecosystem, though, seems built to drive the creation of the bombastic moments that make this quite possibly the best couch-battling game ever made.

Make them. Not like go meet new people, but take the friends you have and sit them down with this game, or Jamestown, or Geometry Wars, or...

The trick is to start with something simple and competitive, get people used to that type of activity, and then introduce new games (or old games that are new to you all).

I love collecting Steam indie games that support 4 controllers, but the trouble is finding ones that aren't super-difficult, competitive, or make everyone go "Eh...I don't get this game." A recent game to fail that test is Mercenary Kings - a co-op where everyone's lives are shared before you all fail the mission.

Octodad is brilliant for this, though. In co-op mode (2 to 4), every player gets control of one limb, and you coordinate to complete silly objectives. There's usually no real rush, and a lot of fun is had even when messing up and messing around aimlessly.

Towerfall, though, I'm curious whether it's easy enough to pick up that it would fit this formula of drawing people in.

Towerfall, though, I'm curious whether it's easy enough to pick up that it would fit this formula of drawing people in.

Yes. Yes it is. My kids were able to get the game after one round. The mechanics are simple enough for anyone to pick up and play and competitive enough to have a whole lot of fun killing 3 other people repeatedly.

I love Towerfall! It's easily the most played game on my Ouya, and I highly recommend it to all of you non-Ouya owners. Glad to hear that the Ouya's getting the updated stuff soon too; I'm looking forward to that already.

Make them. Not like go meet new people, but take the friends you have and sit them down with this game, or Jamestown, or Geometry Wars, or...

The trick is to start with something simple and competitive, get people used to that type of activity, and then introduce new games (or old games that are new to you all).

I love collecting Steam indie games that support 4 controllers, but the trouble is finding ones that aren't super-difficult, competitive, or make everyone go "Eh...I don't get this game." A recent game to fail that test is Mercenary Kings - a co-op where everyone's lives are shared before you all fail the mission.

Octodad is brilliant for this, though. In co-op mode (2 to 4), every player gets control of one limb, and you coordinate to complete silly objectives. There's usually no real rush, and a lot of fun is had even when messing up and messing around aimlessly.

Towerfall, though, I'm curious whether it's easy enough to pick up that it would fit this formula of drawing people in.

Indeed, it can be difficult, and thanks for the heads up that Octodad is local co-op, I wasn't aware of that and it sounds hilarious.

My recent local co-op failure was Morocco, which looks amazing, but I couldn't get the people on board because I hadn't become familiar enough with it myself first, and even after learning it's definitely a "gamers game" in my opinion.

edit: I feel like we should start a forum thread about awesome, casual, local co-op or versus games. Or is there already one?

Look, I know it's the rage these days, but please don't embed multi-megabyte gif files into the articles (seriously, the gif that was embedded is ~3,180 kilobytes!). That or hide it behind a click-to-load.

Wonder if this works with multiple controllers attached to the same PC. That would be amazing for impromptu play without LAN parties.

It does.

... and I can't think of a game like this that I've played on PC in a long while that didn't come with 360 gamepad support right off the bat.

I know what they say about assuming, but at this point, I assume controller support in all games except the ones that are inherently restricted to m/kb because of genre or game design. So far I haven't been surprised.

Look, I know it's the rage these days, but please don't embed multi-megabyte gif files into the articles (seriously, the gif that was embedded is ~3,180 kilobytes!). That or hide it behind a click-to-load.

how many seconds does it take to download 3MB on a 1.5mbps DSL link? 17 seconds. 9 seconds at 2mbps. 4.5 seconds at 3mbps. negligible above 3mbps.

Wonder if this works with multiple controllers attached to the same PC. That would be amazing for impromptu play without LAN parties.

It does.

... and I can't think of a game like this that I've played on PC in a long while that didn't come with 360 gamepad support right off the bat.

I know what they say about assuming, but at this point, I assume controller support in all games except the ones that are inherently restricted to m/kb because of genre or game design. So far I haven't been surprised.

While it is safe to assume gamepad support, it isn't always safe to assume multiple gamepad (couch-mode) support. True local play is a surprising omission from some titles, even if they support local network play.

While it is safe to assume gamepad support, it isn't always safe to assume multiple gamepad (couch-mode) support. True local play is a surprising omission from some titles, even if they support local network play.

But that's the thing: it doesn't even support local network play. It only supports true local play. How could you say you have true local play in a 4 player game and NOT support 4 controllers?

While it is safe to assume gamepad support, it isn't always safe to assume multiple gamepad (couch-mode) support. True local play is a surprising omission from some titles, even if they support local network play.

But that's the thing: it doesn't even support local network play. It only supports true local play. How could you say you have true local play in a 4 player game and NOT support 4 controllers?

Oh, sorry, I missed that in the article. I thought it only said that it didn't have online support, I didn't see where it specified the local play was local network or local PC. I didn't realize it didn't support local network.

I guess the only way to do that would either put 4 people on the same keyboard, or have four keyboards and make everyone promise to stick to their assigned keys... (*wink wink nudge nudge*)

(five seconds later:

"Why is my guy running to the left? Who's making me run left???!!"

Hmmm... this has possibilities....

*EDIT* Yes, I know this isn't really feasible, and there is even some speculation whether it is even possible. Just enjoy the mental picture

While it is safe to assume gamepad support, it isn't always safe to assume multiple gamepad (couch-mode) support. True local play is a surprising omission from some titles, even if they support local network play.

But that's the thing: it doesn't even support local network play. It only supports true local play. How could you say you have true local play in a 4 player game and NOT support 4 controllers?

Oh, sorry, I missed that in the article. I thought it only said that it didn't have online support, I didn't see where it specified the local play was local network or local PC. I didn't realize it didn't support local network.

I guess the only way to do that would either put 4 people on the same keyboard, or have four keyboards and make everyone promise to stick to their assigned keys... (*wink wink nudge nudge*)

(five seconds later:

"Why is my guy running to the left? Who's making me run left???!!"

Hmmm... this has possibilities....

You may like to know that only ONE PLAYER can use the keyboard in PC sessions. Presumably to block out jerky moves like the one you just described. You'll need additional USB/Bluetooth gamepads to get up to four players.

While it is safe to assume gamepad support, it isn't always safe to assume multiple gamepad (couch-mode) support. True local play is a surprising omission from some titles, even if they support local network play.

But that's the thing: it doesn't even support local network play. It only supports true local play. How could you say you have true local play in a 4 player game and NOT support 4 controllers?

Oh, sorry, I missed that in the article. I thought it only said that it didn't have online support, I didn't see where it specified the local play was local network or local PC. I didn't realize it didn't support local network.

I guess the only way to do that would either put 4 people on the same keyboard, or have four keyboards and make everyone promise to stick to their assigned keys... (*wink wink nudge nudge*)

(five seconds later:

"Why is my guy running to the left? Who's making me run left???!!"

Hmmm... this has possibilities....

Local controller-based multiplayer is actually more common than you seem to realize in recent PC games. In fact, now that AAA publishers shriek in fright at splitscreen (like they do at modding, DRM removal, and player-run servers) it's basically all relegated to indie games, which tend to appear equally on both PC and consoles. It was well worth it for me to buy myself two PC-only controllers, and to get my PS3 controllers to emulate XInput with a special driver, as I now have an entire dozens-long category in my Steam library of games that support multi-controller play.

As an added bonus, with many of those games being indie (or 2D in the case of Rayman), many people could hook up a midrange laptop to their TV to play these types of games with any controllers they have.

Being a frequenter of weekly LANs at friend's houses, these local multiplayer games very frequently dominate the night depending on the mood people are in. I highly recommend a Wireless Xbox 360 Controller to PC Adapter for gameplay with these games. Each adapter supports 4 wireless controllers and it makes it super easy to get everyone on. (The adapter works natively in most linux distros and android).

I own and enjoy Towerfall on the Ouya and it has been a popular choice many times. Other games that occupy our time are:

* Starwhal I really can't recommend this game enough, super quick to pickup, and makes for some very heated, yet fun matches.

* Bombsquad (Mac/Ouya only) this game supports 8 players out of the box, but a quick few commands over the network and it'll support as many as your hardware can handle. The gameplay is quick to pickup, with some decent combos for some quick, intense local player gaming.

While it is safe to assume gamepad support, it isn't always safe to assume multiple gamepad (couch-mode) support. True local play is a surprising omission from some titles, even if they support local network play.

But that's the thing: it doesn't even support local network play. It only supports true local play. How could you say you have true local play in a 4 player game and NOT support 4 controllers?

Oh, sorry, I missed that in the article. I thought it only said that it didn't have online support, I didn't see where it specified the local play was local network or local PC. I didn't realize it didn't support local network.

I guess the only way to do that would either put 4 people on the same keyboard, or have four keyboards and make everyone promise to stick to their assigned keys... (*wink wink nudge nudge*)

(five seconds later:

"Why is my guy running to the left? Who's making me run left???!!"

Hmmm... this has possibilities....

You may like to know that only ONE PLAYER can use the keyboard in PC sessions. Presumably to block out jerky moves like the one you just described. You'll need additional USB/Bluetooth gamepads to get up to four players.

Really? I thought it would be supported at the OS level, like multiple mice are (try it sometime, even applications that are doing custom things with the mouse only see one cursor, but you can move either mouse to move the cursor). It seems weird that the os can even support multiple keyboards as separate entities, but not mice. All the applications I currently use see one keyboard as far as text entry is concerned. (I do, in fact have two keyboards plugged in right now, a Kinesis Advantage, and a regular keyboard in case anyone else needs to use the computer)

Look, I know it's the rage these days, but please don't embed multi-megabyte gif files into the articles (seriously, the gif that was embedded is ~3,180 kilobytes!). That or hide it behind a click-to-load.

how many seconds does it take to download 3MB on a 1.5mbps DSL link? 17 seconds. 9 seconds at 2mbps. 4.5 seconds at 3mbps. negligible above 3mbps.

It has nothing to do with how fast it downloads and everything to do with it downloading at all.

While it is safe to assume gamepad support, it isn't always safe to assume multiple gamepad (couch-mode) support. True local play is a surprising omission from some titles, even if they support local network play.

But that's the thing: it doesn't even support local network play. It only supports true local play. How could you say you have true local play in a 4 player game and NOT support 4 controllers?

Oh, sorry, I missed that in the article. I thought it only said that it didn't have online support, I didn't see where it specified the local play was local network or local PC. I didn't realize it didn't support local network.

I guess the only way to do that would either put 4 people on the same keyboard, or have four keyboards and make everyone promise to stick to their assigned keys... (*wink wink nudge nudge*)

(five seconds later:

"Why is my guy running to the left? Who's making me run left???!!"

Hmmm... this has possibilities....

Local controller-based multiplayer is actually more common than you seem to realize in recent PC games. In fact, now that AAA publishers shriek in fright at splitscreen (like they do at modding, DRM removal, and player-run servers) it's basically all relegated to indie games, which tend to appear equally on both PC and consoles. It was well worth it for me to buy myself two PC-only controllers, and to get my PS3 controllers to emulate XInput with a special driver, as I now have an entire dozens-long category in my Steam library of games that support multi-controller play.

As an added bonus, with many of those games being indie (or 2D in the case of Rayman), many people could hook up a midrange laptop to their TV to play these types of games with any controllers they have.

Really? I have three, I think (that isn't sarcastic, I have a number of games on Steam, but local play is really missing from what I have. Trine 2 (Wife LOVES that), Rayman... One of them (Wife response: I liked the mosquito level...), and Dungeon Defenders (splitscreen). Any suggestions? We've played a few other games via network on her laptop, but it isn't powerful enough to play 3D, so I'm a fan of local PC play. And she grew up on Nintendo, so she likes the controllers anyway.

I use Logitech F310s, Which can use either DirectInput (old games) or XInput, via a switch on the back (DualShock layout, too, which I prefer). Love those things.

Look, I know it's the rage these days, but please don't embed multi-megabyte gif files into the articles (seriously, the gif that was embedded is ~3,180 kilobytes!). That or hide it behind a click-to-load.